Global Climate Change: What Earth’s Rising Temperatures May Mean for Kansas City

This is heartening — you don’t often see climate change stories from local newscasters and Gary Lezak does a great job of outlining many key facts in his news segment at KSHB TV.

Hopefully we will start to see more local journalists take this subject up because climate change is already impacting local economies in big ways. Forget about the storms, the droughts, and the floods for a moment — the documented 1.3 degree temperature increase is causing heavy economic impacts through higher air conditioning bills in most states through much of the last decade. It’s only a marginal amount each month but if you add up those increased cooling costs for everyone over the decade it’s billions or trillions of dollars.

The topic of global climate change can be controversial. But the fact is, the Earth is currently warming up.

Average temperatures have climbed 1.3 degrees Fahrenheit around the world since 1880, according to Nasa’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies. There are many questions from here, like: Is this warming caused by man, or is it just a natural cycle? What will happen if the warming continues? What impacts will it have on society or the environment? Is there anything we can do about it?

The past year has brought a lot of unusual weather to our region and the nation.

• Superstorm Sandy: The late season hurricane turned hard into the New Jersey shore, unlike any hurricane on record, and became part of a bigger storm that produced 4 feet of snow in West Virginia - a hurricane and a major snowstorm at the same time!

• 102 days later, another Superstorm struck the same region - this time a blizzard bringing 25 to 40 inches of snow to New England.

• Last year, the United States had four times as many record highs as record lows, and it was the warmest year by far in U.S. weather history.

• Kansas City continues to experience an exceptional drought.

• The lowest amount of snow in Kansas City’s recorded history last winter came after two of the snowiest winters the previous two years.

Maybe the climate has already changed, or we are just now experiencing this change right before our eyes.